Hurricane Preparations?

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Airborneguy

Retired and Brewing
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It's been awhile since I've had to even consider this, so I'm hoping for some extra tips form more experienced folk from further south. It looks like we have at least a chance of a direct hit here in NYC.

My wife is probably heading to North Jersey saturday morning, so I really don't have to worry about immediate danger, just long term power outage. I'm filling my two Poland Spring bottles tomorrow and putting them in my lager fridge so that I'll have 10 gallons of semi-ice water. We are stocked up on batteries and flashlights, plenty of food, and both cars will be filled with gas. I also have two full propane tanks and my brewing burner. I have a decent First aid kit, but I'm not too worried about that because I am close to a hospital and drive a modified Jeep Wrangler ;).

And of course, most importantly, I am VERY WELL stocked with beer. :mug:

What is everyone else doing?
 
There was no mention of beer? Do you have beer? Should we worry?

Also, you drive a wrangler in NYC? Isn't that much like driving a Ferrari through a pasture?
 
Couple cases of water, batteries for the flashlights and a few food items.

Mostly I'm keeping my youngest away from the TV and newspapers so she doesn't freak out.
 
So I'm thinking I'm going to go to the local ice place right down the road and get some dry ice. I may turn one of my chest freezers into storage for food with the dry ice and then some more for my keezer. The only bad thing is I have 2 batches fermenting right now.screw buying water I have beer. I sure hope the basement doesn't flood that would screw up my pipeline.
 
There was no mention of beer? Do you have beer? Should we worry?

Someone stopped reading after Wrangler :D

Also, you drive a wrangler in NYC? Isn't that much like driving a Ferrari through a pasture?[/QUOTE]

You'd be surprised, there are plenty here. No one waves back, but I probably wave at least ten times every time I leave the house. Mine's manual too!
 
Ocean City, MD is have a full evacuation tonight at midnight. There is a chance I will be pulling into town just before. :eek:

Having a place on the water is great until something like this comes.
 
From experience, I've found that board games, liquor, and a few friends crashing on your couch make a fun hurricane experience. Box fans and ice are also good ideas. We filled every Tupperware and ziploc bag we had with water and froze them for long-lasting ice blocks a few days ahead of time. Good luck!!
 
As brewers, we are actually fairly well prepared. Have lots of propane to boil water if necessary. Lots of batteries for flash lights. A good book to read. Charge cell phones, iPods, etc. Get food you can cook without electricity.
 
Fill your tub with water. If you loose water pressure, use a gallon pitcher to flush the toilet by dumping it in the bowl. I'm a Louisiana native. As Long as your home is ok, the worst is just losing power for a few days and being hot and bored. Fill up your gastank too. It shouldn't be too bad though. She'll have lost most of her steam by the time it hits you.
 
Fill your tub with water. If you loose water pressure, use a gallon pitcher to flush the toilet by dumping it in the bowl.

Yeah, we used to do that all the time when I was growing up. We were on well water and would lose power in even small storms.
 
My wife is heading to North Jersey tomorrow morning to stay at her parents', so all I have to worry about is myself and my dog. I'm anticipating being ordered in to work for the whole weekend though, so I might have to drop the dog somewhere. The City has already started evacuating 2 hospitals on Staten Island.
 
One thing I just thought of for anyone that still has time. Get and have cash on hand and plenty of it. Once power is out pretty much no places will be able to take cards and many not even checks.
 
Really, I think everything will be fine. I've spent a good chunk of my life in Louisiana and Florida, and have been through many of these things. This storm is already down to the mid-80s in terms of wind, and it will drop even more before it gets up towards NYC.

I think I'm going to brew in my garage tomorrow - Natural Disaster Ale. In a week with both an earthquake and a hurricane, good time to name a new beer.
 
The wind isn't the problem with this storm. The size of it and how slow it is moving it. The amount of rain and the storm surge is going to be equivalent to about a cat3. It shouldn't be too out out by you though.
 
Yeah, been raining here since about 11am. Pretty hard at times but nothing more than just a normal storm so far. Still a good ways away though.
 
I just filled a couple cornies with water, froze a bunch of bottles of water. I have propane and a burner so I think I'm set. Thanks for the tip on the bathtub water to flush the toilet, I wouldn't have thought of that. Good luck everyone
 
The neighbor from hell was screwing around on her roof earlier today before the rain came in. Hours later I have a basement leak from my furnace exhaust vent. I go outside to check and... no cap on the vent. That's new.

Thanks neighbor. :mad:
 
The wind isn't the problem with this storm. The size of it and how slow it is moving it. The amount of rain and the storm surge is going to be equivalent to about a cat3. It shouldn't be too out out by you though.

Yep, been raining all day, should continue for the next 36 hours. Not expecting any issues, I live on high ground. The river below us has risen a bit due to the rain, but it shouldn't cause anyone around here an issue.
 
Getting blasted here right now. Its been pouring for almost 12 hours and the winds are really picking up. I still have power though, which I definitely expected to lose overnight. If this is as bad as it gets, we did ok.
 
I've been without power for about 9 hours. How long can the meat in my ice box hold out?

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I used the storm as an excuse to buy a 10 gallon Rubbermaid water cooler to fill with emergency drinking water - it will become my mash tun after the storm passes.

A tree has broken in my back yard. One side of a Y at least 10" diameter. Fortunately it fell away from the house!!!
 
Getting blasted pretty good right now and this is just the beginning.

We had 4 trees cut down few weeks ago because they were leaving towards the house. I don't know if they would have stayed up with this wind.
 
I've got everything indoors, gas cans and the generator standing by. Shoildn't be too bad up this way as a lit of it has kinda died down. That said, it aint here yet and the wind is blowing pretty hard core. We're all out on our farmers porch watching limbs come off the trees occassionally. And the power keeps hiccupping here and there
 
Very odd. We lose power if a squirrel farts too close to the transformer under normal circumstances, but the wind has been howling for 6 hours now and we still have power.

Probably just jinxed that, of course.
 
Oops. Good size tree off my driveway just snapped in two.

Maybe doing arts and crfts with the kids out on the farmers porch is a bad idea?

Nahhhhh. I don't think the heavy stuff is gonna come for a while.


Annnnnnd poof. There goes the power
 
Not bad, the sun is actually coming out! No house damage thankfully, that's what I was worried about. I drove around a bit and the streets are a mess, but mostly passable. Lots of flooding in the Hylan Blvd area though. What about you? You have power?

That's called the Eye. You are about to get slammed again, but the winds will be going the opposite direction, and everything that got weakened by the first round will be absolutely destroyed in round two. I've been through two of these things.
 
Also, this talk of "Only a cat 1" is too dismissive. Simple tropical storms do plenty of damage. Even a garden variety thunderstorm with 40 to 50 mph wind gusts can tear up a town. 74+ mph sustained winds is nothing to shake a stick at. Particularly a stick that is sitting in rain-saturated ground.
 
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